Web Desk (LTN NEWS): Flash floods caused by heavy rain on Friday washed away a temporary bailey bridge over the Uchar nullah stream near the Karakoram Highway in Upper Kohistan’s Dasu area. This cut off Gilgit-Baltistan from the rest of the country.
The bridge was near the camps where people lived for the 4,500 megawatt Dasu Hydropower Project.
Sherry Rehman, the Minister for Climate Change, also confirmed the news by saying that the “compact bridge washed away in the flood surge.”
“Right now, both sides of Karakoram Highway are blocked. Babusar road is not open to buses right now. All of the area’s deputy commissioners need to keep an eye out. “The bridge wasn’t strong,” said the minister.
Dasu Assistant Commissioner (AC) Hafiz Muhammad Waqar said that the bailey bridge was put up as a temporary fix last week because floods had washed away the RCC bridge over the nullah.
He was also afraid that if a steel bridge was put back up in the area, it would also be washed away in the next rainstorm.
Late Thursday night, a landslide in the Alpuri neighborhood of Shangla destroyed a house. Luckily, no one was hurt or killed.
Met Office says there will be more heavy rain
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said on Thursday that the monsoon season is still going strong and that the country will get another round of heavy rain in August.
APP reported that the weather forecast calls for heavy rain in most of Balochistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, south Punjab, Azad Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan.
From August 11 to 13, heavy rain could cause flooding in cities like Karachi, Thatta, Badin, Hyderabad, Dadu, Jamshoro, Sukkur, Larkana, and Shaheed Benazirabad, and Mirpurkhas.
“Flash flooding is expected in Qila Saifullah, Loralai, Barkhan, Kohlu, Mosakhel, Sherani, Sibbi, Bolan, Kalat, Khuzdar, Lasbella, Awaran, Turbat, Panjgur, Pasni, Jiwani, Kohat, Swabi, Nowshera, Mardan, Peshawar, Karak, Bannu, Tank, and Waziristan.”
Most of Punjab will have weather that is hot and humid. However, rain is expected in Bhakkar, Layyah, Sahiwal, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan and Rahim Yar Khan.
The PMD warned that landslides could happen in Kashmir, KP, and GB if it rained.
At a separate meeting of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Climate Change, the Met Department warned that this season, the whole country will get more rain than usual.
